Chances Are . . .

Three 66-year-old friends—Lincoln Moser, a commercial realtor from Las Vegas; Teddy Novak, a small-press publisher from Syracuse; and Mickey Girardi, a working-class musician from Connecticut—reunite at Lincoln’s inherited house on Martha’s Vineyard, 44 years after their college graduation. Flashbacks establish their origins as scholarship students who worked as “hashers” in the cafeteria of a wealthy Theta sorority house at Minerva College in Connecticut, where they formed an unlikely but enduring friendship. They also befriended a Theta sorority member named Jacy Calloway, a spirited, wealthy student who was beloved by all three friends but was engaged to Vance, a young man from a similarly upper-class family.

A pivotal flashback reveals the 1969 draft lottery that alters their destinies. Mickey draws number 9, virtually guaranteeing that he will be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Lincoln draws 189 and Teddy draws 322, so they are both in safer territory. When Jacy consoles Mickey after his devastating draw, Lincoln experiences an ironic stab of jealousy at her show of affection and silently chastises himself for his momentary lack of perspective.

Further flashbacks detail the men’s individual backstories. As a teenager, Lincoln had a troubled relationship with his domineering father, Wolfgang Amadeus “Dub-Yay” Moser, a mine owner from Arizona, and his quieter mother,